Alone Together
by TheRealSokka
Summary: This is an alternate version of events after Vanya is locked up in the bunker. (A.K.A: It would have literally taken one genuine hug to prevent the apocalypse.) Focused on Vanya, Klaus and Allison - not in the romantic sense. And also Ben, because him and Klaus are pure gold.
1. White Violence

**I'm absolutely loving 'The Umbrella Academy', and since the TV show doesn't have it's own page yet I'm just adding this here. Just know that I've never read the comics; I'm only putting my thoughts on the shit that happened in the show into words. Starting with the biggest 'what if' scenario, obviously; Vanya in that cell. The last two episodes were so frustrating to watch because of this, but at the same time it sadly made sense for all the family members to act the way they did. Won't stop me from writing a fix-it, though.**

**(Also, is it just me or did Vanya casually out-phoenix Jeanne Grey?)**

* * *

„Is anybody else uncomfortable with this? Or is it just me?"

As always, Klaus' input went unheard. Either that, or ignored. Probably the latter.

"That bunker was built to withstand an atomic blast, right?" Luther was questioning Pogo. Right now he was in full I-am-Nr-1 mode, not allowing anything but what he'd identified as the right thing to do to be done. Klaus wasn't sure if he had always been like that or if it was a recent thing. Not that it affected the outcome in any way.

"It was, Master Luther. May I advise…"

"No." Luther turned to the rest of the group. "We have to decide what to do with her."

"Yeah, about that…" Klaus tried to make himself heard again.

"This is insane. You do realize this is Vanya we're talking about?" Diego spoke over him. He was pacing back and forth across the atrium. That in itself was a sign how serious things were. "Vanya. Little sister who made herself an umbrella tattoo just to belong? If she had powers, don't you think she'd busted those out a lot sooner?"

"Not if dad found a way to stop her from doing it." Luther argued. "And good thing he did, or we would all probably be dead."

"_Dad really was an asshole, wasn't he?"_

"You can say that again." Klaus agreed.

"What?" Both of his brothers looked to him for the first time, confused.

"Didn't agree with you!" Klaus clarified in Luther's direction, without elaborating further. This didn't feel like the time to bring up the dead-brother-talks-to-me explanation (somehow he doubted there would ever be a right time for it), especially since he finally had their attention. It was a testament to how insane things had gotten that he – Klaus – had to be the voice of reason. "Even if Vanya has powers, which I'm not saying she does, I don't feel like putting her in an atomic bunker is the best possible option here."

"It's our _only_ option right now." Luther was visibly trying to be patient. It wasn't working that well. "What do you suggest we should do? Have a polite chat around the dinner table and talk things out until she slits all our throats like she did Allison's?!"

"Yes." Klaus said. "Well, minus the throat slitting part."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but he's right." Diego jumped in in his support. "Even if Vanya doesn't care for any of us, she does care for Allison, man. A blind guy could see that. Whatever happened, it must have been an accident."

"An accident?!" Luther growled, eyes flashing dangerously. He took a step towards Diego. Somehow he seemed to grow even taller than his already impressive height.

Diego, to his credit, didn't budge. He had never been one to back down from Luther. Unfortunately, he had also never learned how to talk to him. "You're being emotional because it's Allison. If it were one of us, instead, would you still care so much?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means Vanya hurt your girl, and now you're on a revenge trip."

Off to the side, Klaus winced. Wrong thing to say. Very, _very_ wrong thing to say.

For a long moment, Luther just glared at his brother. Much to Klaus' surprise, though, he didn't start throwing punches. His giant shoulders just sort of clenched and unclenched, as if debating for themselves whether Diego was worth it. Maybe he was as drained by the last few days as the rest of them. In the end, he just shook his head: "Vanya is dangerous. We're not letting her out. And that's final." Without another word, he turned around and walked away. Perhaps it was coincidence that his bulky frame shattered a vitrine on the way, but it looked more like a lot of pent-up frustration if Klaus had to guess.

As the splinters clattered to the floor, the two brothers exchanged a glance. "Ideas?" Diego said.

"Hold hands and start singing Kumbaya?" Klaus suggested.

Diego sighed profoundly. "Great. I'll go check on mum." With that, he was gone, too.

Pogo, looking weary beyond his years, shuffled off after him.

Talking things out was an issue in their family, Klaus reflected. To the point that, apparently, even locking up their sister behind atomic-proof metal was preferable to it. Normally he wouldn't care, but right now he was depressingly sober and he was finding that this condition made him prone to caring. He really didn't enjoy the feeling; it was like a permanent ache in his stomach. High time to fix that.

He started heading for his old room. Maybe there was still some leftover cocaine somewhere to find. He'd even take basic painkillers at this point. The thought of Vanya sitting alone in that room, screaming her soul out, didn't agree with him. Nope, not at all. But he was Klaus, and there wasn't a whole lot he could do on his own. What was the point in even trying?

Perhaps Luther would see sense, eventually. Or Diego would get fed up with him and bust their sister out on his own. Yeah, that was probably what was going to happen, Klaus convinced himself as he climbed the steps, trying not to think too much about that cell deep below him. And trying to ignore the nagging voice in the back of his head.

The only problem was, that voice didn't care much if he ignored it or not.

"_So, that's it. Solitary confinement for Number 7." _

"Yep." Klaus said.

"_She is going to need a lot of drugs after this."_

Klaus stopped and looked at his brother, wondering if he had rubbed off on spirit Ben a little too much. He was starting to talk just as much nonsense as him. "Huh?"

"_Just saying. That's a lot of trauma. She's gonna need a way to cope. Especially if she's been down there before…"_

Ah, so that was the way the wind was blowing. "That was way below the belt, man." Klaus complained, pretending to search his pockets for something so that he wouldn't have to look at that judgemental stare on his brother's face. Ben had perfected that one.

"_You could supply her, I suppose. Good deeds help with the guilt."_

"Now, Ben…"

"_I can't even imagine what she's going through right now, locked up, all alone. Can you?"_

Klaus stared at him. Ben stared back.

Finally, Klaus groaned and gave up. Damn it. Yeah, he could imagine very well. And of course Ben knew that. "You're by far the worst brother, brother. And with that I'm including the knife-throwing maniac and the time-travelling grandpa." he said accusingly. Then he turned on the spot and headed back the way he'd come.

* * *

_I'm sorry._

_I'm sorry._

She had screamed it so often that her voice was practically gone. Now, Vanya sat slumped against the door of her cell, knees drawn to her chest, and just thought it over and over. She didn't even know what exactly she was apologizing for at this point. Everything probably. Existing.

Her entire cell was lined with sharp spikes, except for the door, so that was where Vanya sat. The empty middle of the room only made her feel more vulnerable, so she avoided it. There weren't any noises coming in to join her, only stale air and her own heartbeat. And with nothing to distract her from the silence, her thoughts were overwhelming her. The barriers she has built up over the years couldn't stop them, even though Vanya would have given anything not to think or feel. The silence wasn't so kind as to let her.

She had almost killed Allison.

She had definitely killed Leonard – Harold. Even now, Vanya couldn't wrap her head around the Why and How of him. One day ago, she thought she loved him, but now when she searched for those feelings, there was nothing. Not even guilt for killing him. He had deserved it. But there was something else stirring in her chest, thinking of that moment when she finally put a stop to his insults: It had felt good. More than good; _satisfying_. And that scared her more than anything else.

She had killed those people in the parking lot, too. She hadn't realized for a long time, or she hadn't wanted to think about it, but beside the patter of rain and the drum of the engine there had been the sound of spines snapping. She hadn't meant to do it. It had just happened.

She had almost killed her sister.

Vanya gave a dry sob, burying her face in her hoodie. She hadn't meant to. She would never do that to her, never. It had just…

Happened? Just happened, like everything else?

What if something else 'happened'? If she lashed out again, in anger or fear or envy? Vanya had plenty of all three, and it would only take one mistake. One moment of failing to keep it all from showing, and another person she cared about might be dead. Maybe it was a good thing she was locked up in here. This way she couldn't harm anybody else.

It was all Vanya could do not to burst into cynical laughter: All her life she had wished for powers of her own, but now that she had them she was still the liability. She should have known, really. Nothing she ever did turned out right.

_I'm sorry._

_Why should _you_ be sorry? It's _them_ who have locked you in like an animal. Ignored you your entire life. Whispered behind your back. They always wanted to keep you controlled, just like your father did. Lest you overshadow them all._

It rang all too true. Vanya remembered now. All the days of loneliness, the absentminded slights and the open torture. She had been too young to comprehend it then, but now she understood what had happened to her. Being in this room made those memories bubble up from deep in her subconscious, and suddenly it was becoming hard to breathe. Vanya gasped for air. The walls around her seemed to be moving in on her. She pressed her eyes shut. There was a faint ringing sound in her ears.

Two memories kept coming to the forefront. Reginald Hargreeves – dad – guiding her into this room for the first time, saying she had to be controlled. And then him standing on the rooftop, telling her she wasn't special.

_He deserved to die for what he did. He deserved more than he got._

But her siblings weren't like dad. Vanya forced herself to remember that. They weren't. They were a messy and dysfunctional family, but not cruel or evil. Luther just cared about Allison, that was why he was doing this. If they'd just let her explain, she could apologize and maybe her sister would forgive her. When Allison had looked at her earlier, Vanya hadn't seen hate in her face. Just sorrow. It had given her a sliver of hope. They would let her out; she had to believe that.

_Really? How much do you really know them? Look at where you are now. Is this was siblings do to each other?_

No, it was what her father would do to her. What he had done, repeatedly, and not only to her. Her brothers knew that and still…

The ringing in her ears grew louder and louder, and Vanya pressed her palms to her ears in an effort to shut it out. She could feel the familiar energy building in the sound, coiling, ready to snap. Her hair started to dance in an impossible breeze. Vanya gasped, tried to steady her breathing; she had to control this…

Did she, really? What then? She would spend the rest of her life in this cell, because she couldn't be trusted. Not even Allison trusted her. Before Vanya lashed out, she had tried to charm-speak her back into her shell, make her less than special _again_. Her own sister would do that to her _again_.

She had been kidding herself all this time. Even with real powers, Vanya was still being swept aside like she always had been. Nobody cared about Number 7. Even the one person she'd chosen to trust had turned out to be only interested in her powers, not in Vanya Hargreeves. Because how could anyone be? She would always be alone.

Through the drowning thrumming of her own heartbeat, she almost didn't feel the rhythmic vibrations of the cell door against her back. When she did, Vanya first thought it was her doing, too. But when she looked up, what she saw was a hand banging against the window of her cell, the sound inaudible through the thick glass.

In a heartbeat, she had jumped to her feet and was looking for her visitor through the small opening – uncertain whether she wanted to hug that person or blast the door in their face with decades' worth of pent-up anger.

From the other side, of all people, Klaus was waving at her.


	2. We'll Go off Script

**Thank you for all the nice comments! I'm posting this a bit slower here than on AO3, as this website makes it a lot harder to correct errors after a chapter has been published, so I'm trying to only post once I'm really satisfied with the chapter. I am with this one, and I hope you'll be, too.**

**(Also; here's a little game of 'Spot the Reference' for you: There's one small part each referencing "The Expanse", "Doctor Who" and "The Dragon Prince". I didn't consciously write it like that; I just typed out the words and then went, "Wait, this sounds familiar."**

**Well, now it's in there and you won't hear me apologize for it. If you love said shows as much as I do, see if you can spot the moments I'm talking about.)**

* * *

**Chapter 2: We'll Go off Script**

* * *

Getting down here unnoticed had been the easy part. Everyone in this house, including Luther, was busy with their own shit at the moment, so no one had paid attention to Klaus sneaking into the elevator. So far, so good.

The problem was, now that he was here, Klaus wasn't sure what he had planned on doing. Well; letting Vanya out, obviously. But he hadn't gotten to the How yet. Before he had left, Luther must have turned the wheel on the door so far that it was utterly jammed, because none of Klaus' tugging would even so much as budge it.

Frustrated, he leaned his head against the door. It was the exact same situation as when he was a kid, only this time he was on the right side of the door and he _should_ be able to do something.

Klaus was really starting to hate feeling so powerless. It was a good thing Vanya was sitting with her back to the window, so at least she couldn't watch him fail. Thanks to the soundproof-ness of the entire thing, she probably didn't even know he was there.

Which, if anything, was even worse.

Klaus started banging against the door. Seeing her curled up in there like that brought back memories, and not the nice kind. Vanya had her hands clasped over her ears, and that instinct, too, was familiar. He wondered what she was trying to block out. Regardless, she shouldn't be alone with it. Even if Klaus had no chance in hell of breaking this glass, he had to at least make her see she wasn't all alone.

He succeeded. Though his sister couldn't hear him, something of what he was doing must have gotten through to her. Because after a couple of seconds of knocking (with Ben's vocal moral support), his sister was on her feet and looking back at him through the glass.

Only it wasn't exactly the sister he knew.

Vanya's eyes were white. But not the dull, blind kind of white. This was an intensely emotional, blazing silver-white, which would have looked unnatural in anyone, but did so especially on Vanya whose expression used to be always controlled and restrained. Her skin was pale, too, like she had spent months out of the sunlight instead of only a few hours. The hair around her face danced around as if in a storm.

Vanya looked like a vengeful ghost. Or like one of his drug-induced hallucinations. Klaus took an instinctive step back. He shot Ben a quick glance: "You're seeing this too, right?"

"_U-hu_." his brother confirmed. His expression said he didn't understand it any more than Klaus did.

Vanya started hitting the door from her side, yelling something Klaus couldn't hear. Her eyes flared up and suddenly a crack appeared in the glass, making both of the brothers jump. Vanya flinched, too, and stumbled back a step – evidently just as surprised.

Okay. So, apparently his sister really did have powers. Either that or she carried a pair of extremely scary contact lenses with her that could also crack glass somehow. Which, you know, Klaus wouldn't judge, but he would bet on the former. And he couldn't deny that she scared him a little bit. His sister looked _scary_, and for one impulsive second he was very glad for the thick steel separating them. Then he remembered _what the hell, this is Vanya, stop being stupid_.

Vanya seemed to calm down a little when she saw he wasn't going anywhere. Instead of hitting it, she now pressed her hand against the glass. Klaus half-expected it to shatter on contact, but nothing of the sort happened. The look on her face – if you ignored the silver eyes – was a mix of fearful and urgent and her lips were moving, but of course Klaus couldn't hear what she said. Nor had he ever learnt lip reading, to his increasing regret. It was probably something along the lines of "_Let me go!"_ or "_Where the hell have you been?!_". Or "_You're the worst family in the history of families and I will tear all your arms off once I get out!"_ None of which would have been that unjustified, considering.

"I'm sorry about this." Klaus said, gesturing toward the cell. It wasn't one of his more helpful comments, especially since Vanya couldn't lip-read either, as far as he knew, but hopefully she got the gist at least.

She seemed to. Vanya stopped speaking and lowered her head, taking a deep breath. When she looked up again, that scary glow in her eyes was gone and she was back to normal Vanya. Instead of white her eyes were now red-rimmed, like she had been crying. More than anything she looked dead-tired.

Something dropped in Klaus' stomach, and the next second he was back at the door tugging at that damned wheel like his life depended on it. He couldn't bear to see that look on her face one second longer. This was how he must have looked like every morning after another night in the mausoleum. If he ever managed to get dad on the phone again, he was going to slap his ghostly face, respect for one's fathers be damned.

But for now the old man could go fuck himself. Klaus willed Ben to help him out, and his brother was quick to oblige. For a second his fingers did close around the handle, before slipping right through like the ghost he was. Both of them cursed and tried again. On the other side, Vanya was staring at them (or, for her, just at Klaus) in surprise. Her mouth opened in what seemed to be an incredulous laugh. Her eyes were starting to glow again…

They were pulling with all Klaus had, but he already knew it was futile. His shoulders slumped. Without Luther or Diego's strength, there just wasn't any way they could…

Klaus had barely even time to finish that thought before Ben yelled _"Duck!"_ and the next second there was an ear-splitting _pang_. Fortunately, because his brother had never yelled at him before, Klaus was startled enough to indeed duck, so that the myriad of sharp glass splinters suddenly erupting from the window sailed harmlessly over his head. Klaus' ears were ringing. He threw a wide-eyed glance at Ben who had crouched beside him, covering his head (_You're a ghost, dammit_).

"Klaus? Klaus?!" came Vanya's voice from the other side, now clearly audible. She sounded panicked. "Klaus, are you okay?!"

"Uh…I think so, yeah."

Cautiously, he straightened back up to peek over the rim of the (atomic-, but evidently not Vanya-proof and now definitely broken) window. The entire top half had been blown outwards, with the lower splintered into a dozen hairline cracks. And over the sharp-edged glass peeked the pale face of his sister, eyes once again back to their usual brown. When she saw him, she gave a sigh of relief: "Oh, thank God. I thought…"

She didn't articulate what exactly she had thought, but then the look on her face was saying it very plainly. If there had been any doubts left in Klaus' mind that what happened to Allison had been an accident, this dispelled them for good. That was not the look of someone who actively tried to kill people. He doubted Vanya of all people was even capable of a look like that.

"We're fine." he said. "You okay in there, too?"

"I – yeah. I didn't mean to do that. Please, don't leave; I can explain it…"

"Woah, relax, sis. We're not going anywhere. Right, brother?"

Ben gave him a thumbs-up. For once, his look wasn't judgemental in the slightest.

Klaus nodded. "Thought so."

Suddenly, Vanya's expression became wary. "Does Luther know you're here?"

Was that fear or fury in her voice? Klaus couldn't tell. "Doubt it." he assured her. "Last I checked he was worrying over Allison."

Within a second, the wariness morphed into guilt. Vanya lowered her head, mumbling something too quiet to understand.

Yep, still the sister he knew.

Her powers, however, seemed to be a bit unstable. Somewhere in the back of his head, Klaus was beginning to comprehend that he hadn't heard the glass clatter against the floor. That either meant that Vanya had completely atomized it, or that she had blown it so far down the tunnel that the sound didn't even reach his ears anymore. Neither option was very reassuring. Time to calm her down before anything else exploded. "Allison's fine." he assured her. "Just tired. But then it's the apocalypse, so who isn't, right?"

That caused a sarcastic laugh. Yeah, given what happened, Vanya probably didn't need to be informed about that. Standing there with her arms drawn close to her body, she looked like the embodiment of pensiveness. She hesitated for a moment. "Does- does this mean you believe me?"

"That you're not a psychotic maniac who needs to be locked up in Father Dearest's secret torture bunker? Geez, what do you think?"

Vanya huffed and turned her head away. "You make it sound stupid, but after the last couple of days it is actually damn nice to hear you say that." Her eyes clouded over with sorrow. That seemed to be her default of late, or possibly always had been. "I didn't mean to hurt Allison. Does she know that?"

"She does. She'd be here instead of me if she could." Klaus promised, sincerely. This felt weird. He wasn't used to having heartfelt conversations, and having this one through a prison door was even weirder. "So", he tried, "you have powers."

"Yes. Strange, huh?"

"Yep. Weird."

"_For God's sake, man, you are not helping."_

"I swear I didn't know. And I never meant to hurt anybody!"

Klaus was still glaring at Ben. Thought, to be fair, he did have a point. "I believe you, sis. But Luther doesn't, yet. He's convinced this," he gestured at the cell, "is necessary."

A sudden burst of anger flashed across Vanya's expression, her face twisting. Klaus felt a faint breeze sweep out of the bunker, lifting the hem of his coat. "Necessary? Putting me in here _again_ is _necessary_?!"

Klaus winced at the hurt in her voice. "Bad choice of words. It's been a rough week, and your – powers – are the cherry on top of this giant pile of insanity. And that's coming from _me_, may I remind you…"

His sister didn't let him finish. Yes, she looked positively mad now. "I didn't choose to be like this! If dad hadn't done this to me… I didn't come here to hurt you. None of you. But you couldn't trust me, right?" The metal between them was starting to rattle worryingly. "You didn't because I'm just 'the other one'. That's what dad made me. And you all went along with him, you all ignored me; you're still ignoring me! I just wanted…" Vanya stopped abruptly, blinking away tears in her eyes. The gale around her died down. "Forget it."

Klaus, for his part, stood there like a stump, not quite knowing what to say to that. Even setting aside the scary powers part of that outburst, in over twenty years he had never heard Vanya express so much of what was going on inside her as in those few sentences.

"_And if that isn't perfectly proving her point_…"

"Oh, stop it with the judging. This isn't my fault."

"_Is it supposed to be hers? Respectfully; bullshit. Now that we know what she walked out of, it's a wonder she isn't as insane as you are_."

"Hey! I take offense to that!"

"_Shut up and say something_."

Klaus resisted the urge to point out that that didn't make any sense. He turned back to the cell. Vanya was facing away from him, her shoulders shaking. Klaus swallowed. Dammit, sober really was a very depressing state of being. He had never even tried to look at all this from her point of view. She probably thought they were a bunch of assholes, and not entirely without reason. "I'm sorry." he offered.

No reaction.

"For everything." he amended. Ben was nodding at him to continue. "But hey, I'm not ignoring you now. I guess that's not worth all that much, but maybe now that the old man is gone we can start over." Klaus glanced at his brother, searching for something to help him here. He was starting to get really worried at the utter lack of response. "I know we've been assholes, and this isn't exactly helping." he offered. "You think you can forgive us?"

Finally, a quiet, shaky "I'm trying." came from the cell.

Klaus' shoulders slumped in relief. Relief to hear Vanya's voice, that was; not because of the response itself. Even with everything they had been through, he could not remember ever hearing her so angry and so helpless at the same time.

"This is all too much. I just want to get out of here." Vanya whispered, more to herself than to him. Her breathing was harsh, like she couldn't get enough air into her lungs.

"I know." The reply left Klaus' mouth without him even thinking about it. Before he had time to question what the hell he was doing, he was already talking again: "Dad locked me up in the crypt when we were kids, with the ghosts. Some bullshit about 'facing my fears' or whatever. It didn't help at all." He hadn't meant to start complaining of his own fucked-up childhood, but Vanya had raised her head again and stopped hyperventilating, and that was a good thing. On impulse, Klaus reached his hand through the broken window. After a moment, Vanya took it, linking their fingers. He took comfort from that. "I guess what I'm trying to say is; I know what it's like. That you can't breathe, and that you think everyone has forgotten you. But you're not alone and we'll get you out of there, just watch!"

Vanya gave a muffled noise. Just like everything else about this situation, this, too, was awfully familiar: the sound of someone trying very hard not to cry and failing. "Thank you." she managed, voice wobbly. She squeezed his hand tighter.

Klaus glanced up. Ben was smiling. "_I always told you; you don't have to be alone. I'm proud of you."_

Yeah. To be honest, Klaus was surprised at himself. He had never told anyone about this, except for Ben.

"I knew."

"What?" Klaus asked. He wasn't sure he'd interpreted the small voice correctly.

"I knew about the crypt." Vanya said, voice stronger now. "I saw dad take you down there one night. He said it was for your own good, but… it was wrong."

Klaus had frozen up at her admission. In the back of his head, he'd known that the effects those nights had had on him must have been visible to everyone, but no one had ever said anything. Hearing it said out loud was surreal.

"You had nightmares." Vanya continued. "Our rooms were next to each other, do you remember? I heard you screaming for them to leave you alone all night. But dad wouldn't listen to me, so I…" She faltered. "I started playing the violin so I wouldn't have to hear it. I thought, maybe it could help you, too, in a way."

"_That's_ why you did that?" Klaus asked incredulously. For as far back as he could remember, the music of Vanya's violin had provided the soundtrack of his childhood. He'd never questioned why she used to play even deep into the night; he'd just assumed she liked the damn thing so much.

"Yeah." His sister gave a half-sardonic huff. "I'm sorry; I guess I didn't have the courage to do anything else. That's me. Must have been some great help, huh?"

"_Tell her."_

Klaus cleared his throat. "Actually," he managed, "it was."

"Hm?"

"Yeah." Klaus nearly laughed. "A big help, actually. Turns out, a violin being violated the next room over can distract from ghosts quite well, you know? And those were some nasty sounds in the beginning. No offense, sis."

"Oh." For a moment, Klaus thought Vanya actually was offended. Then he heard her laugh quietly. An honest laugh. Her voice used to be always so controlled that the mirth echoing through it now was positively surprising: "Oh God, I'm so sorry."

"Nah, that was a good thing." Klaus corrected. "And, for the record, you got better. I never needed fewer drugs than when you were playing '_The Four Seasons'_."

There was a moment's silence. "That's the weirdest nicest thing I think you've ever said to me."

"You're welcome."

Vanya made a noise halfway between laughing and crying. She looked away. "Fuck. I can't tell you how good this feels." Her expression turned guilty once again, the mirth replaced by sadness. "I never wanted to write that book, Klaus. I just needed someone to tell all of this, just once…"

_Oh, dammit. What the fuck am I doing?_

Klaus retracted his hand hastily. "Yeeah, I'm not the right person for this kind of talk, sorry. If you want to spill your soul out to someone, it really shouldn't be me. Hang on a moment, sis, I'll get help."

Vanya startled. "What? Help?"

"Yep. I promise I'll be right back. _You_ promise you won't do anything stupid, okay?"

"Stupid?"

Klaus gestured vaguely. "Just don't make anything else explode. I know that cell is bad, but things are a little tense in the house right now. And you did just kill that window. Luther might get the wrong impression. Again." He took a few steps, then turned back around: "We'll get you out. Don't worry."

As they rode the elevator back up, Ben was back to judging: "_You're bailing _now_?!"_

"No, I made an executive decision to enlist some help, since you are none at all." Klaus shot back.

"_Help for a conversation?"_

"For the feelsy kind, yeah." Even though talking to Vanya made him feel surprisingly good and, well, lighter (which he would never admit to out loud), he was just unqualified; that was the simple truth. Plus, the realization had hit him (very abruptly) that his sister had a lot to get off her chest, and she should really be telling it to Allison, who had a lot of her own to say if Klaus had read her demeanour correctly. That way, _two_ of his sisters could bond and clean up the mess that their dear old father left them in. It was just efficient, not to mention life-saving.

Perhaps Ben interpreted all that from his silence. At least he stopped nagging him until they stepped off of the elevator.

The lobby was still as silent and abandoned as he had left it. Nobody had even noticed his absence, as expected.

Right, then. Time to get creative. Somehow, he needed to unglue Luther from Allison long enough for her to get down there. That would take one big distraction. Klaus resolutely flexed his shoulders and went to find Diego.

* * *

Vanya's heart did a leap when the elevator doors opened again and Allison stepped out next to Klaus.

Vanya wanted to, she _needed_ to talk to her most. More so even than she needed to get out of this hell. She didn't question how Klaus had gotten Allison away from Number 1. What mattered was that she was here and he wasn't. Maybe they could fix this. If only she knew how to start. She didn't have much practice talking to her family.

"I'm sorry." she said eventually. It didn't say nearly enough, but Vanya didn't know what else to say.

Allison didn't reply. Of course she didn't; she couldn't. Instead, she started writing on her little note pad. When she held it up for Vanya to read, there was her answer: _I'm sorry, too_.

Vanya breathed a sigh of relief and leant her head against the cool metal. She had dreaded her sister's reaction more than anything else. "This is all so fucked up." she whispered.

"Ben agrees with you." Klaus put in helpfully. He was keeping himself a little further back, and Vanya kind of wished he wouldn't. She needed some support for this conversation.

Allison's pen was still racing across the note pad. Vanya saw her own guilt reflected in her face when she held it up again: _Shouldn't have said what I said_.

_I heard a rumour_…

Maybe that wasn't all she meant, but it was all Vanya could focus on. The words that had turned her life into what it was now. They made the resentment in her chest flare up once again, but she clamped down on it before it could turn into the raging fire that it had become the last time.

She now had an idea of why her sister had done it, after all. The memories that had come rushing back since she had woken in this room helped her see it more clearly, and that was about the only thing they were good for. Young Allison hadn't known what it was that their father made her do, just like none of the rest of them had ever known, and that plaster across her throat was a stark reminder that Vanya had hurt her more than enough for it already. That, and the sick paleness of her skin and the dark circles under her eyes. So Vanya swallowed her anger back down. Her voice came out hoarse when she said, "Please, never try to control me again."

Allison shook her head immediately. Her eyes were shining with tears, and she gestured to her throat.

"It'll be okay. You'll get your voice back." Vanya tried to reassure her. She could see that this was getting to her sister, and at the sight her remaining anger began to die down. Privately, she made Allison a promise to _make_ it okay, somehow. "Even your Rumour."

Her sister pointed between the two of them and hastily scribbled down more words: _Never should have used it_.

Vanya gave a humourless laugh. "I guess we all have something to apologize for, huh?"

Allison nodded, but a bit of the light returned to her eyes. She scratched her pencil: _Runs in the family_.

"I would even say; it sprints." Klaus offered, having been uncharacteristically silent until this point.

Vanya wanted to hug them both. The impulse was alien, and her muscles probably wouldn't have known how to follow it through even if she weren't still trapped in this cell. This damn cell. She was becoming increasingly aware of the four spiked walls still surrounding her. Even with her siblings here, this room made her anxious. "Please, can you get me out of here?" she pleaded.

Allison immediately nodded, reaching for the wheel, but Klaus moved to hold her back. "Uh-uh, sister. No offense, but you're in no condition. I already tried." He glanced at Vanya. "You know what; let's just get all the family hands on this while we're at it. You just stay with her, sis, and I'll see that I get Diego down here." To Vanya, he gave an overly cheerful smile: "We'll have this open in no time!" Then he turned towards empty air and waved his hand: "No, I don't. We'll figure it out. Stop being so pessimistic; it won't!"

While he was arguing with himself, Allison crossed her arms, her frustration palpable. Then she looked at Vanya again, and Vanya couldn't read her expression. It was somewhere between nervous and thoughtful.

Finally, she started writing again. She showed the block to Vanya: _You can open it_.

"What?" Vanya felt a cold shiver run down her spine when she realized what her sister was suggesting. "No. No way."

_You can_.

"No." Perhaps she really could break the room open. She had already cracked the glass. That wasn't the problem; what Vanya was afraid of was what else she might end up doing. If she used her powers, she would only hurt them again; the two people who finally listened to her. Who she loved, she realized. She wouldn't do it. Even if that meant staying in this place. "I can't control it. There has to be a better way." she argued.

Allison shook her head. When she raised her block again, there were three words written on it: _I trust you._

Vanya faltered. "Allison…" she tried to protest.

Her sister tapped against the words again, insistent. The look on her face was familiar, and it said she wouldn't take any argument on this. _I trust you_.

It was all Vanya could do not to cry. "Okay." she managed to get out, accepting it. She found Allison's eyes and tried to tell her the rest: _I won't hurt you again. You have to believe me_.

Her sister nodded. _I trust you_.

_Dammit_. "Go, at least!" Vanya called, waving them away insistently. "I don't want you anywhere near that door!"

Presumably there was a confused reply from Klaus, but she didn't hear it anymore. After a moment of collecting herself, Vanya stepped into the middle of the room, simply breathing and waiting for them to get to a safe distance. Then she closed her eyes.

_I trust you._

The words kept replaying in her mind, as if one of her siblings had actually said them out loud to her. Vanya felt a faint memory tug at her: Maybe one of them actually had said it, at some point. She couldn't remember clearly. If it had ever really happened, it must have been long before Ben's death. When they were still young.

Vanya opened her eyes. There was a storm brewing around her; the words she had only imagined hearing in her siblings' voices turned into tangible energy, waiting for a target. For one panicked second, Vanya didn't know how to control it. It was frightening.

_I trust you_.

She could do this. She had done it before. Number 7 breathed out deeply, focusing, listening to the currents, imagining what she wanted to happen in her mind. Then, in one single motion, she unleashed everything against the door. The first time it had been an accident that she had barely been able to comprehend; this time she felt every moment of it. The energy rushed through her like a torrent, a powerful stream that she was directing. Exhilarating.

Sparks flew and there was a big crash and for a horribly long moment everything remained in place, keeping her trapped. The metal of the door groaned as if in pain. Then, slowly, the entire thing started tilting, falling outwards. It hit the floor with a loud thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Vanya lowered her hand, slowly, allowing the remaining energy to abate in harmless winds around her. A laugh tore from her lips. She had done that. That giant, stupid cage door father had built for her was lying there and _she had done that!_ Was this how it been for the others when they learned their abilities? Had they felt this powerful?

When the dust cleared, the figures of Allison and Klaus became visible once again. They hadn't moved nearly as far away as Vanya would have wanted them to. Her brother was staring at the mangled door with as perplexed a look as she had ever seen him, before raising his hand in a stunned thumbs-up. Her sister looked just as shocked, but even as Vanya was stepping over the fallen door, it transformed into a beaming smile.

"Uh…hey." Vanya stopped short, unsure what to do now. What did one do after something like this?

The struggle was taken out of her hands when Allison rushed forward and embraced her in a tight hug. Vanya froze, and then clutched her back, feeling warmth spread through her chest. This was a genuine hug from her sister, not the superficial touch she had grown to expect. Another new feeling for the list. And Vanya never wanted it to stop.

She felt another pair of arms encircle both of them. Klaus had never been shy when it came to physical affection, only usually it was born from whatever drug he had taken last, and this time he didn't look drugged. Vanya couldn't remember the last time his pupils had been so clear. "Cuddle!" he proclaimed, wearing an absurdly wide grin.

Vanya smiled against his shoulder.

Abruptly, Allison pulled away, locks brushing against Vanya's cheek, and started furiously writing on her note pad. She met her sister's eyes, a look of resolve on her face: _What do you want to do now?_

"What do _I_ want to do?" Vanya asked, perplexed.

Her sister nodded: _Your choice_.

"But – Luther?" she asked.

"Oh, he'll come around." Klaus cleared his throat. "Besides, right now he should still be distracted by a medium-sized fire in Father Dearest's study. We've got time."

Vanya didn't even question the fire-part. Her brain was too busy trying to come to terms with how relaxed they were being about all this. "But – didn't Five say it was today? What about the apocalypse?"

_Can wait_.

Vanya laughed out loud when she read the words.

Klaus only shrugged. "I mean, the guy that was supposed to cause it is dead. Even Five said so. When he can stop preaching doom, I'd say we're probably fine."

Something about what he said sent Vanya absurdly on edge. She didn't know why. "What do you mean? Who was supposed to cause it?"

Her siblings glanced at each other. "Right, you missed that. Five learned the name of the man – don't ask me how, it's time mumbo-jumbo – so we went looking for him." Klaus explained. "And when we found this Harold guy, he was already dead. So, jay, no apocalypse!"

_Harold?_ Vanya felt something drop in her stomach. Her eyes found Allison's. Her sister looked at her sympathetically, but she nodded.

Harold – Leonard. Who _she_ had killed. But how could that have stopped…?

Understanding came over her in a tidal wave, as the jumbled pieces of this insane puzzle finally started falling into place: Leonard. He was not special; he could never have caused the apocalypse. Yet he was supposed to be responsible. And what he had chosen to do over the last few days was get close to _her_. He had done everything to make her use her powers more – and she had. These enormous powers that she could only barely control. That meant…

"I'm the cause." Vanya whispered.

"Huh?" Klaus frowned at her. "Come again?"

Vanya backed away from them. "I cause the apocalypse."

Before either of them had a chance to respond to that, a voice boomed through the tunnel: "What the hell?!"

Her siblings whirled around towards the tunnel entry. Number 1 stood there, having just stepped off the elevator. He was staring past them at the broken cell, open-mouthed.

Klaus groaned. "Thanks, Diego. Great distraction." he complained.

Allison stepped protectively in front of Vanya.

Vanya was too dazed to really register it. This was all too much. Too much at once and too far removed from anything she had ever believed. She didn't want it to be true.

Had father known about this? Maybe that was why he had taken her powers away and made her an outcast in her own family. To prevent what she was going to do.

"Did you do this?!"

"Luther, this one time I can honestly say that I didn't. Had nothing to do with the whole explody thing."

Only, it hadn't worked, had it? Instead, her father's actions had driven her right into Leonard's arms, and because she didn't know about her powers, she couldn't even comprehend what was happening to her. And now she was here; an unexploded bomb, just waiting for another trigger to cause the end of the world. And it was as much Reginald Hargreeves' doing as Leonard's.

Not hers.

Her gaze focused back on Luther, who was slowly, warily walking towards them. He had raised his hands in a gesture that must be meant to be placating. "Vanya. You have to understand…"

"No, I don't." she said, and her own voice sounded alien to her ears. "Whatever you're gonna say, don't say it."

"Vanya, I'm really sorry." Luther wasn't deterred. "But you need help. This is to protect you as well as us."

"Stop! You, dad, all of you stop trying to 'fix' me. You're just making it worse!"

Her brother looked extremely uncomfortable. Maybe that was even a trace of sympathy in his expression. He was now only a few steps away. "You're not listening. I'm only trying to…"

"Don't!" Vanya raised her hand, and Luther stopped in his tracks. Perhaps she was subconsciously using her powers to keep him there, or perhaps he was just wary; she didn't know. But she wasn't going to let him do this to her again. "Don't touch me. I- I don't want to hurt you."

"Yeah, you should probably listen to her on that, big guy." Klaus put in.

For a long moment, they all stood there in silence, eying each other cautiously. Vanya could hear her own heartbeat thrumming in her ears. She didn't know what was going to happen next.

Then the elevator _dinged_ into the silence, the doors opened and Diego jumped out, in full combat mode. He registered all four of them in their stand-off and raised an eyebrow. "Shit. Did I miss it?"

Luther turned around to him. The tension broke and Vanya released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Way to ruin the moment, man." Klaus said.

Diego walked towards them, his gait appearing relaxed on the surface. "So, family meeting. What are we doing?"

"Wait." Luther narrowed his eyes dangerously. "The fire… That was you, wasn't it? It was! What the hell? Have you all gone completely insane?!"

"Diego! Nice of you to join us!" Klaus called, ignoring him. "We were just debating what to do with our apocalypse-free evening."

"Is this all a joke to you?!" snapped Luther. "Did you all forget…" He interrupted himself when Allison took his arm. His anger seemed to abate a little when their eyes met. Allison had always had that ability, even without her Rumour. She had written something new on her note pad, and Luther's brow creased as he read it. His eyes flicked to Vanya.

She squared her shoulders and met his gaze, defiant. He wasn't _trying_ to hurt her. But just like father, he was thinking he knew better and wanted to decide what was best for her. Vanya's entire life had been shaped for her by other people's decisions. Even her fate to bring about the end of the world had been decided over her head. But she was done with it, completely and utterly done. She didn't want her family to get hurt, and she wasn't going to let this decision be taken away from her, too.

Allison led Luther a couple of steps away from them and started talking to him insistently through her note pad. Luther's answers were too quiet to make out.

Klaus gave her a nudge. "Hey, at least we're talking." he established in that weirdly uplifted way of his. "Progress." With a nod behind him, he added, "Ben is proud of us, too."

Vanya gave him a grateful smile. She didn't know how else to say what she wanted to: Klaus had given her strength to even do this in the first place. If he hadn't shown up on the other side of that door – Vanya didn't know what she would have done.

Diego appeared next to her, joining their impromptu group circle. He was wearing a curious look. "Was that your handiwork?" he asked, pointing at the demolished bunker.

She nodded, suddenly wary. His hands weren't close to his knives, right?

Diego whistled through his teeth. "Impressive." he said. And left it at that.

At least he wasn't taking Luther's (their father's) side. But, knowing him, that stance was more due to spite than out of love for her. The best Number 2 had ever shown her was indifference.

Maybe that would change now, but Vanya wouldn't get her hopes up. For now, she was just glad that nobody tried to press her back into that cell.

Finally, Luther and Allison turned back around to them. Luther sighed, looking at Vanya. "I'm sorry." He gritted his teeth, but forced the next words out: "Maybe I was wrong. _Definitely_ wrong." he quickly amended after a glare from Allison. "This wasn't the best idea. After some consideration, I'm taking a step back from decision making. Just for now." he still had to add, stubbornly.

"That's a new one." Diego commented sarcastically. "What will we do without our plan-maker?"

"Shut up."

"Well, it's 9:00pm." Klaus said, after a quick glance at Allison's watch. "That donut shop should still be open. Odds are we'll run into Five there, too." He looked around their circle. "Anyone hungry?"

_9:00pm?_ Vanya frowned, the casual time stamp carrying with it the reminder that the rest of the world was still out there. "My- my concert starts in 30 minutes." she remembered.

Over everything that happened, she had completely forgotten. In 30 minutes, she was supposed to play lead violin of the orchestra. Without her, there wouldn't be a concert. It felt weird to think about that now. Given the circumstances, it seemed like a secondary concern.

"Concert?" inquired her brothers in unison.

"At the Icarus." Vanya elaborated, ignoring the little sting in her chest. Of course none of them would know about it. "I was supposed to play."

Allison raised her pad: _Do you want to go?_

"I- I don't know." It was still a new feeling; that this was supposed to be up to her. She hadn't used her violin since…then. It felt tainted now. But Allison was looking at her expectantly, and that gave her the strength to say, "Yes. I do." She really did, and not just because the orchestra was the only thing she had accomplished in her life. More than anything, she wanted to show her sister that she could do better; use her instrument just for music again.

"Okay then." Klaus rubbed his hands. "It's settled. We're getting some cultural experience."

"Woah, woah, woah." Luther interrupted. "Are we sure this is a good idea? No offense." he added, glancing at Vanya.

Allison hit his shoulder, a gesture that needed no translation. Then, smiling at her sister, she flipped her pad back a couple of pages: _I trust you_.

Everyone looked askance to Diego. He shrugged his shoulders and twirled a knife back into his belt: "What the hell; got nothing better to do. I've never been to a fancy concert, but I certainly ain't afraid of one." He looked pointedly at Luther. "Let's go."


	3. Symphony

**Basically, this is what I was working towards with this story. I've seen a number of people suggest that the world would have been fine if Vanya just hadn't been interrupted in her concert, and I have to agree. SO this is the alternative. I loved writing this, especially from Vanya's perspective.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Symphony**

* * *

Allison didn't know what kind of crowd normally attended the Icarus Theatre, but even then she was able to tell that their little group was by far the strangest that this building had ever seen.

The first hint to that was the cashier, who took one look at Diego in his full combat gear and immediately picked up his phone to call security. Klaus didn't improve things when he started chattering at the man with what he must assume to be a posh British accent, an impression that was ever so slightly undercut by the fact that he was still dressed in his tattered sleeveless jacket and was displaying all the symptoms of recent drug withdrawal. Add to that Luther with his hulking goliath-figure and Allison herself, voiceless and with the plaster across her throat, and she really couldn't blame the poor, underpaid employee for wanting nothing to do with this. She probably wouldn't have let them in, either.

It was a small miracle that they had gotten here in time at all, as they must have found the only taxi driver in the city who didn't even bat an eye when the five of them squeezed into his car. With her, Vanya, Klaus and Diego pushed up against each other on the backseat and Luther riding shotgun, it had been an utterly absurd situation and Allison would have laughed out loud if she could have. Perhaps it should have been uncomfortable and awkward – and it was – but with Klaus spending the entire drive telling lewd jokes and Vanya resting her head on Allison's shoulder after a while (maybe just due to the limited space), it was also somehow perfect. Allison couldn't recall the last time she had been this close to her siblings – figuratively and literally.

Meanwhile, half-a-dozen security guards had arrived, fidgeting with their batons and eying Diego's knives nervously, and Vanya was quietly trying to convince them that her entourage wasn't as bad as they looked. She put it in nicer terms, of course. For someone who was dealing with her kind of problems and had been locked in a cell not 20 minutes before, she was doing an admirable job of staying calm and not letting it show. A sad smile crossed Allison's lips: her little sister had always been good at that.

Add that to the long list of things she could feel guilty for.

Luckily, two of the guards were fans of her movies, and combined with Vanya's eventual threat that either all of them would get in or the orchestra would have to make do without their lead violinist, that got them front row tickets in the end.

It was 9:25 by the time they finally entered the building. With a quick "Gotta run!" Vanya hastily excused herself and sprinted off into the musicians' area, leaving the four of them on their own.

"I don't like this." Luther said for what had to be the hundredth time this week.

"Noted." Diego huffed. He was still visibly miffed that security had confiscated his knife collection – though they must not have checked everywhere, as he was twirling one of them between his thumb and forefinger even as he spoke. There hadn't been time for any of them to change into anything different before jumping into the taxi, but Allison somehow doubted her brother would have done so even if there had been time. She had never seen him without that leather jacket and matching weapons belt, ever.

To a degree, she understood that a little better now. Without her voice, she felt helpless. Her hand unconsciously went to her throat. If this injury was final, if it wouldn't heal…

Luther placed a hand on her shoulder: "You okay?"

Allison swallowed and nodded. She linked her arm with his. There was so much she wanted to say, and none of it would fit on her note pad. She was so very glad that he was there. That he had been there when she woke up. She didn't know what she would have done if he hadn't been. She still didn't know what she'd do after tonight. But for the next few hours, she just wanted to try to be a family again. To listen to her sister play, and forget for a while.

"Right, then." Klaus' voice startled her out of it. He looked legitimately excited. "Shall we?"

The theatre was already packed when they went in. Allison's stomach clenched briefly at the sight, as she imagined what would happen if Vanya's powers acted up here like they had at Harold's cabin. They didn't know anything about how her powers worked; she doubted whether Vanya herself really knew. Was Luther right; was she putting lives in danger by trusting her sister so implicitly with all this? Maybe they should have stayed put.

Allison pushed that thought back. She had made her decision, and for once in her life she knew it was the right one. Trusting someone was always dangerous, which was why Luther, Vanya and even Diego were so hesitant to do it. Allison didn't exempt herself from that circle; she had made her own bad experiences with misplaced trust. But over the course of the last few days she had slowly realized that when it came to her family – her _real_ family – it was a risk that she had to be willing to take. For Vanya more than for anyone else.

"Hey, we're going to our little sister's concert." Diego told her when they walked down the centre aisle, as if he'd just now noticed. Allison wasn't sure what that look on his face was. It wasn't the carefully guarded, disinterested look she had come to expect. "This is weird."

"Wait until it starts." Klaus said. "It's going to be amazing!"

"Have you ever even been to a concert in your life?"

"No."

"Great."

Allison felt Luther chuckle at the both of them, the noise pleasantly reverberating in her chest. She smiled lightly. Yes, this was worth it.

They had only just reached their seats when the curtains opened and the musicians walked onstage.

* * *

Vanya had stage fright.

It was ridiculous. After everything she'd been through, playing in front of a packed theatre shouldn't be this nerve-wrecking. She had done it before, even, and it hadn't been this bad. Of course, on every one of those concerts she had just been another anonymous instrument at the back, not right there front and centre for everyone to see. And she also hadn't arrived literally seconds before the performance was about to start, out of breath and dressed far too casually, getting a lot of disapproving looks in the process.

And the audience had never included her siblings, right there in the front row. Her siblings who were watching her play for the first time in her life. Who had only just accepted her back into the family, to a degree. There was Luther; impossible to overlook and still suspicious of her. Diego; antsy in his seat, as always. Allison; with the plaster across her throat, giving Vanya an encouraging smile. Klaus; with a free seat next to him, for Ben. They were all looking at her, and all the attention made Vanya's skin crawl. She wanted to slip back behind the curtains and hide.

_Clap, Clap, Clap!_

Klaus had mistaken their entrance for the audience's cue to start applauding, with the result that his claps now echoed loudly through the otherwise hushed auditorium. After a second, the rest of the theatre reluctantly joined in. Vanya gave a strained smile. Perhaps she should have explained to her brother beforehand that people who went to see this orchestra generally weren't the most effusive of people. Applauding was meant for after the performance.

But then 'effusive' might as well have been Klaus' middle name and he probably would have done the exact same thing even if she had told him.

Then the conductor was already giving the signal and his baton settled on Vanya and she remembered to breathe. And she played.

* * *

The violin drew a mournful tune, echoing on its own through the theatre for a long moment. Then the rest of the orchestra picked it up

Vanya was nervous. Maybe that wasn't immediately apparent to the majority of the people in the audience, but Allison could read her well enough: It showed in the way her fingers clutched the bow and the stiff way she was holding herself. And the way her eyes were completely fixed on her instrument, as if afraid it would abandon her otherwise.

Memories of their childhood flashed through Allison's mind; of the sound of Vanya's violin echoing through the walls of the academy, often right before the rest of them went out on a mission. Allison remembered how her sister would close her eyes and lose herself in her music when she thought no one was watching. Those were the only times where she had ever seemed relaxed and almost happy. They had been few and far between.

For the longest time, Allison had accepted those rare carefree-Vanya moments as the exceptions to her otherwise restrained and distant sister. Now, after what her sister had yelled at her, she wondered if those moments were what their entire childhood would have looked like if they hadn't gotten the father they did. Or if she had dared to speak up to him, or done anything to include Vanya in their family.

Snapping out of the memory, Allison returned to the present and to the grown-up woman sitting alone on the front chair, her eyes open and concentrated. The tunes from her instrument were sweeping into the auditorium, low and calm and sad, just like their creator.

It was good music. But it was the distant version of her sister playing, the tune muffled through the protective shell she had built up over the course of too many years, and more than anything Allison wished she knew what Vanya looked like underneath. In all this time, she had never bothered to learn. And now, she knew, it would take a long time, if ever, before Vanya would allow her to see that side of her again. There was just too much trust that had been lost.

"Well, so far, nothing has exploded." Luther conceded next to her.

Allison gave him a hard shove, not caring about the hushing whispers of the people behind them. This wasn't about anything exploding; this was about Vanya getting to do what she wanted without this kind of scepticism. Allison loved Luther, she did, but he really was stubborn to the point of it being an illness, and he was only slowly coming down from the belief that Vanya was a danger to all of them. Hopefully this night would convince him otherwise.

When she turned back to the stage, the change had already happened. Allison saw it immediately: Vanya was sitting up just a little straighter on her chair, had stopped shrinking in on herself, and the sweeps of her bow string were becoming wider, more confident.

Allison looked a second time and, yes, her eyes had fluttered shut.

Klaus nudged her. "Lil' sis is finding her groove." he said, grinning.

Allison would have to agree, as she listened to her sister play out one harmony after the other. Suddenly she seemed to be the only one playing, as if the rest of the orchestra wasn't even there. Allison felt a smile steal onto her lips. Joy for her sister bubbled up in her chest, and she had never known how nice this felt. She wondered what had changed.

Vanya looked up. Her eyes roamed the first row and found Allison, and their eyes met. Allison gave her an encouraging smile. Vanya smiled back, and in that moment she looked happier than her sister had ever seen her. In the white beam of the stage lights, her eyes almost seemed to glow.

* * *

She messes up a lot. Hits the wrong note, or hits the right one a beat too late. Small mistakes that no one would notice her make. Usually.

They're not mistakes someone on her position is allowed to make anymore (_Not allowed. Isn't that a familiar concept?) _It's a good thing Allison and the others don't know a lot about music, she thinks; perhaps they don't even notice. For the first time, she is actually very glad they never came to see her play before.

Vanya stops the string an inch too far down the fingerboard again and she can see the conductor's mouth twitch in disapproval. He's probably regretting his choice of principal violin right now. Vanya has to resist the instinct to lower her bow and apologize.

She can only hope she won't make a more serious mistake than missing a note. There are so many sounds around her, so much potential. Vanya has never been more aware of it than now. Her violin is humming with power and she is straining to control the tunes, lest they bounce off into the room and hurt someone. She can't afford to make mistakes. (_Like wiping that disappointed look of the conductor's face. Send him flying into the crowd_._ Lash out at her fellow musicians behind her, who will whisper and laugh behind her back as soon as the show is done._)

Those thoughts aren't new. Because she is quiet and unimportant, people have always stepped on her space, ignored her or just pushed her out of the way. On bad days, when things were going wrong and the loneliness got to her more than usual, those off-handed slights sometimes pushed her over the edge and caused these cruel thoughts to bubble up in her mind. Vanya wish

* * *

es she could blame her feelings on the suppressed powers inside her, but the truth is, it's just her. She wants to pay them back in kind, to hurt the people who hurt her.

And now she can.

That frightens her. But she also knows, she _knows_ that she doesn't really want to use her powers to cause anyone pain. She doesn't want to be on the other side, the bullies' side. And she's trying all she can to control it. That has to count for something, right? She isn't the bad person Luther sees in her. That father must have seen in her. That whatever entity that is trying to make the apocalypse happen sees in her.

That Klaus didn't see in her. That Allison doesn't. And Five. If something of the boy she knew and cared for is still in there, she thinks he wouldn't accept it, either. She wishes he were here, too.

Speaking of her siblings, there is a new noise joining in the orchestra's melody now. When Vanya looks for the source, she finds Klaus, in the front row, merrily clapping along to the music as if it were a kindergarten concert. (_It's entirely possible he simply doesn't know better. More likely, he does and he doesn't care. That's why she loves him_.)

Vanya breaks into a grin and misses another note. The conductor throws her a warning glare once again, but there is nothing he can do about her now. For the duration of this concert, Vanya's mistakes are her own with no one to criticize. She can do whatever she wants and be whoever she wants to be, she realizes, and no one can stop her.

And it's not because of her powers or her famous siblings; this is just her. Playing her fingers numb and raw on the fingerboard, her bow no longer ghosting across the strings like a nervous animal, but dancing, dancing to the tune echoing in her head. This is just her. Vanya Hargreeves; powerful.

A smile shines at her from the first row in front of her, her violin is _singing_, and for the first time in her life, Vanya just lets go.

* * *

It wasn't the stage lights. Allison had to do a double-take: Her sister was _shining_. A glow was coming from somewhere within her, radiant like a moonrise.

Actually, that wasn't a good comparison, because the moon was full tonight, shining through the window in the ceiling above them, and somehow Vanya and her violin were burning brighter. There were waves of light bursting forth from her in rhythms – as if they were following the flow of the music. That was exactly what was happening, Allison realized a second later. Her sister was _causing_ this. With that little smile still playing on her lips, her short-cropped hair started fanning around her face like a curtain, even as her glow was eclipsing everything else. Allison lost sight of the musicians behind her.

Was this what her power looked like? It looked beautiful – _Vanya_ looked beautiful. Scary; yes, in a way, but beautiful. Her eyes closed, bow fiddling across the strings, she seemed completely lost in her music. Like no one was even watching. Like before.

How could father have been so afraid of this?

A breeze swept through the auditory, emanating from Vanya. Somewhere, glass shattered. Her fellow instruments faltered for a second as they and the conductor stared at their lead violinist. Then Vanya broke into a fast rhythm, her string a glowing blur, and they started up again, picking up her pace. The music seemed to become faster, more intense.

Allison found herself leaning forward in her seat. In the corners of her eyes, she noticed her brothers doing the same, all in one motion. An absent part of her mind wondered how long it had been since they had been so in sync. It was a long time, probably long before Five disappeared. And it wasn't just them. Looking over her shoulder, Allison saw that the entire auditory was mirroring their movement, pulled towards the stage as if by a magnet.

"Woah." Luther breathed next to her. Leaning forward like the rest of them, his figure blocked the entire first row from her view. His arms, he noticed, were tense on the chair.

Allison placed a calming hand on his arm. When Luther looked at her, his face was wearing the now familiar mix of concern. Concern for her, she realized with a warm feeling. He probably thought Vanya was losing control. She wanted to tell him not to worry, but once again her voice failed her, and her writing pad was in her bag, out of reach. Instead, she leaned her head on his shoulder and linked her arm through his, thinking, with a small grin, that she liked this form of communication much better. Luther seemed to get it, because he relaxed a bit against her.

When Allison focused her attention back on the stage, her sister had stood from her chair, her light almost blinding. As Vanya walked over the centre of the stage, the conductor became invisible, completely enveloped by the glow, but it didn't seem to matter; the orchestra was following Vanya's lead. Allison didn't know enough about this kind of music to tell if they were even still playing the original piece or if this was something new.

It didn't feel like any other kind of music she had ever heard, that was certain. This was tangible. This was raw emotion put into music. It went right into Allison's nerves, filling her chest with something she couldn't name. It made her think of the day she had left the academy, staring back at the grey building with a hole in her heart. Of the first time she'd held her daughter, the moment as perfect and fragile as the tiny body in her arms. Of her last mission, when father had sent Luther into the building by himself and held her back without reason, and her tears when he had come back out an eternity later, alive.

Vanya's notes and harmonies blended together, bringing it all to life around her. Sorrow and loneliness. Joy and fear. Anger and relief.

Hope.

Allison realized she was crying. Looking up at her blazing sister on the stage, she was overcome with the urge to run up there and hug her. Because somehow, in this moment, it felt like everything was going to be alright. She would see her daughter again. She wouldn't feel lost and alone in the middle of the flashing cameras anymore. After all this time, she'd stop running away. They could all wake up in the same house tomorrow and start being a family again.

It was wishful thinking, completely and utterly mad. But in that moment Allison simply felt it was true. Something about having the memories, hopes and emotions laid out in front of her like this made it seem almost – well, not simple; certainly not easy, but – fixable.

How could Vanya say all this just through her music? How could she know what those moments had felt like?

Maybe she always had. No; _of course_ she knew. She must have had plenty similar moments of her own, to have feelings like this pouring out of an instrument. Only, nobody had ever asked her. Vanya had always kept to herself, never told anyone what was going on inside her. And now she was telling it, and an entire concert hall was listening, and her and Luther and Diego and Klaus were listening. Allison made her sister a silent promise that she was not going to ignore it anymore.

"Is this what life feels like?" said an unfamiliar voice.

Allison tore her eyes away from Vanya and looked to her left where it had come from. A young man was sitting there, at Klaus' feet, looking entranced at the stage. She had never seen him before, but somehow he was hauntingly familiar. Behind him, Klaus' hands were glowing a pale white, mirroring Vanya on stage.

Allison felt an arm sling across her back, and she leaned closer into Luther, feeling his calm, steady heartbeat. He hugged her tightly, and Allison sighed. She never wanted this moment to end.

And then, far too soon, it did.

* * *

When the music stopped and silence fell, it was deafening.

Klaus blinked back to reality, as if awaking from a pleasant fever dream. His eyes felt weirdly prickly, and he had no idea why they did that. Quickly, he rubbed them with his knuckles before anyone noticed.

What had just happened? Klaus tried to summon that feeling back again. He wasn't big on music – other than to drown out the ghosts, occasionally, when the drugs weren't quite enough – but he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to have effects like that. It had felt as if his body was somehow on fire and freezing at the same time. The only thing he could compare it to was the biggest possible dose of cocaine, and even that didn't come close.

Maybe being sober wasn't actually so bad if he could still feel things like this. He would have to think on that.

His muddled musings were just enough to fill the ten seconds of silence after the music had faded. Then the room erupted in noise as every single soul in the audience seemed to jump up and start applauding.

On stage, Vanya was still glowing. Klaus still hadn't gotten over how creepy (never mind cool) that looked. She looked a little dazed. Staring at them, and the rows of people behind them, she didn't seem to think of turning the glow off, either. Maybe she wasn't even aware of it. Klaus probably wouldn't have been, either, if he had just transformed into a fiddling angel for the last couple of minutes. Was it his drug-deprived mind, or had her clothes and violin turned white?

The audience seemed to think it was some sort of special effect, because they were legitimately giving standing ovations. Only the orchestra behind Vanya (what Klaus could see of them, anyway) was looking at her in apparent confusion. They must be wondering what had just happened to their mousy little lead violinist. Klaus wished he could explain it to them, but if he did he'd most likely just be locked up in the loony bin again.

"_That was the best concert ever."_ Ben said, finally. His voice was uncharacteristically emotional.

Klaus looked at him, remembering. Right. He had more or less accidentally summoned his brother there. In fairness, he hadn't really known he could do that. He'd just been thinking that Ben ought to feel this, too – and perhaps in return explain to Klaus what this feeling even was – and the next thing he knew, the familiar cold that came with summoning the dead had rushed through his chest and there had sat Ben. A considerable lot more tangible than usual. Klaus stared at his hands, then at his brother. He wondered if he could do it again.

He wasn't the only lost in his thoughts. In stark contrast to the rest of the audience, his family was still sitting in their seats, looking stunned. It was like they had all listened to a whole different concert than everyone else. Allison was crying and smiling. Luther's mouth was open and he didn't seem to think of closing it quite yet. Even Diego, from what Klaus could see of him behind Luther, wasn't looking bored anymore. Was that a _tear_ running down his cheek?!

Then his sister leapt up from her chair and rushed for the stage, jumping up there like she hadn't been recovering from a near-death experience just hours before. Cursing, Luther (mouth now closed) went after her. Diego looked in confusion at Klaus, and Klaus just shrugged, jumped up and followed their lead. It didn't seem like a stranger thing to do than everything else up to this point.

Plus, he did kind of want to ask his little sister if maybe she could do that again sometime.

Allison got there first, though. By the time Klaus got on to the stage, she was hugging Vanya, who didn't quite know how to deal with that, awkwardly holding her violin away from the enthusiastic assault. Everyone who wasn't their siblings was staring at them, but Allison was obviously ignoring them so Klaus did the same. He darted in helpfully to take the instrument off his sister's hands, so that she could hug back. Vanya seemed to need a bit of help with displays of affection, he'd noticed. After a second of looking at him wide-eyed, she finally relaxed into Allison's arms. She whispered something inaudible into Allison's ear.

Luther, meanwhile, was looking at the two of them with an odd look on his face. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. If Klaus didn't know better, he would almost say Number 1 looked embarrassed.

"_Klaus?"_

"Yeah?"

"_Would you give them a hug for me?"_

Klaus grinned. "Or I could summon you again and you do it yourself." The words fell from his lips before he could even think them through properly. This was new. He had gotten so used to his brother being his invisible, personal companion that the idea in itself of what he had done there felt weird. But if Ben wanted him to do it, he would. He kind of owed him, after all; big time.

But Ben raised his hands defensively. "_Don't. I don't want to freak them out. Just…do it_."

"Hm. If you say so. Tell you what; I'll even double it. One doubly-brotherly hug, coming right up."

"_Don't be so dramatic_."

Vanya was still looking dazed when they got to her, like she couldn't quite comprehend what was happening around her. By now, all the siblings were standing in a semi-circle around her, and she seemed unsure what to do with that situation. But there was a small smile trying to fight its way into the corners of her mouth, and whatever part of her was trying to stop it, it was losing.

"How- how was it?" she asked, breathlessly.

The siblings exchanged glances. How to put that into words? Allison seemed to have an idea, as she was elbowing Luther repeatedly to say something. The Big Guy started: "It was – uh..."

"S-something else." Diego said. Everyone looked at him. He cleared his throat: "Uh, it was good."

"You're white." Klaus told Vanya.

She looked down at herself in surprise. "Oh."

"It looks trendy." he added.

Ben rolled his eyes, but it was the fond eye-roll, not the judgemental one.

They were all standing in a big family bundle, centre stage. The only one missing was Five, Klaus realized, and they'd have the full academy back together.

Actually, the fuller academy. After all, Vanya was standing in their middle, still glowing faintly like she had never been anywhere else. It made something weirdly warm rise up in Klaus' chest.

"Excuse me?" a disruptive voice called into the family harmony. When Klaus turned around, it was the fancy-dressed man with the pointing stick. He was looking seriously confused, and annoyed. "Who are all you people? You have to get off the stage!"

"Really." Diego turned towards him, evidently not the least bit happy to be interrupted. He twirled his knife meaningfully. "Are you volunteering to make us?"

The conductor's eyes twitched to the rest of the people watching. "Someone call security!" he called.

"I feel like we've heard that a lot lately." Klaus commented. "Didn't we used to be the ones people called for security?"

"Diego, leave it. Relax, everyone." Luther called loudly. He stepped forward, facing the (at this point probably extremely confused) crowd. Then he made a gesture encompassing all of them behind him: "No need to worry. We're the Umbrella Academy."

Vanya burst into tears. Allison gently took her by the arm before she could slink away to cover behind Luther, and raised both their hands to wave at the theatre. Klaus enthusiastically followed suit, realizing belatedly that he was waving with the white violin he was still holding. Diego threw his older brother an appraising look after his announcement and started hollering something into the crowd. Luther grimaced and tried to get him back in line. Yep, just like old times.

It was a genuinely moving moment. For about ten seconds.

Then there was sudden flash and Five burst into the middle of them, in all his dishevelled and frantic glory, yelling: "Move!"

They were all still staring at him when a movement went through the audience and a bunch of masked men stepped into the aisles. There were at least twenty that Klaus saw at one glance. They were all holding machine guns, all levelled at the stage. And before anyone could so much as blink, they opened fire.


	4. This New World

**Sorry for the long wait! Although this has actually accumulated a lot of followers while I was away, which makes me really happy. Enjoy the last chapter and stay hyped for Season 2, people.**

* * *

**This New World**

* * *

Later, Klaus found it difficult to recall the exact course of events. It was a blur, both figuratively and literally.

One second, he was standing on stage next to Diego, staring at the armed men flooding the theatre. The next, he was lying on his back somewhere backstage with the wind knocked out of him and a serious ache making itself felt at the back of his head. On how he had gotten from one position into the other, his rattled brain couldn't provide any information.

"_Get up!"_ Ben's muted voice yelled at him.

Klaus did so, wincing at the stabbing pain in his temple. He looked around his surroundings, trying to take the information one at a time:

1) He was sitting a couple of feet away from the stage entrance, in a space filled with chairs and stage equipment. It was one of those which he had hit his head on.

2) Ben was standing over him, (of course) unharmed, and looked visibly relieved that Klaus was conscious.

3) Diego was lying next to him, apparently out cold, having crashed into a loudspeaker. Two of his knives that he hadn't gotten around to throwing were embedded in the floor.

4) The curtains were sweeping into the stage entrance, concealing everything behind them from Klaus' view. They were also on fire.

5) There were screams coming from the theatre.

It took him about ten seconds to process all of this, and the only conclusion he reached was that something must have gone horribly wrong. And it was the men in the masks' fault. Right. Who in the world were they now and why had they tried to kill them?

As soon as Klaus had finished that thought, two of the masked men turned a far corner and instantly spotted him sitting there, right in the open. Without any hesitation, they lowered their guns towards Diego and him.

Klaus reacted instinctively. As the corridor lit up with gunfire, he jumped for a nearby chair and hurled it at their attackers. His aim wasn't very good, but it succeeded in diverting their attention for a second, at least. Klaus grasped Diego by his arm and strained to pull him into the cover of a nearby piano.

And would have gotten riddled with bullets if Ben hadn't thrown the entire said piano at the shooters. It crashed into the floor right in front of them, filling the corridor with a cloud of dust and splinters.

Klaus' mouth fell open. "Wha…?!" he said intelligently.

Ben looked at least as surprised by what he had just done. He looked almost corporeal now, so much so that Klaus swore he could have reached out and touched him. His face was twisted in a grimace as one of his monsters was erupting from his stomach, the writhing tentacles searching for a target. Then they, and Ben, found that target in the two men who were just struggling back to their feet. There was a flash of multiple limbs lashing out and a moment later all that was left of them were two smears of red on the wall.

Klaus stared at it, then at Ben, then at his hands.

_We just did that!_

"Thanks!" he called, his voice coming out a little shaky. He tried again, this time adding a thumbs-up: "That was nicely done!"

The monster retreated back into Ben's chest. He looked a little overwhelmed, being able to touch things again, but he gave Klaus a nod. "This will be useful." he said. Ever quick to get to the point.

Right. There was still a fight to fight. Klaus quickly checked on his other brother, saw that Diego was already trying to get back on his feet, and then turned back towards the stage entrance. There were still screams coming from behind the burning curtains. And also gunfire.

Klaus risked a glance.

Now, in his time he had seen a lot of strange things, but the scene in front of him now might just come in first on that list. Or maybe second. In any case, it was bizarre enough that it took Klaus a moment to understand what he was seeing.

The stage had transformed into a terrible version of cirque de sole from hell: There were at least a dozen bodies spinning around in mid-air above the stage, held aloft by thin tendrils of light, dancing to music that was no longer playing. Except, it was less dancing and more jerks of pain on the part of the poor men, because the tendrils were piercing their chests, not unlike what Ben's monsters tended to do.

Further back, behind the merry-go-round of death, the theatre was being demolished by what looked like a hurricane tearing throw the rows. The audience was gone, apparently having wisely fled the scene. Torn out seats were flying around and the pillars supporting the roof were displaying worryingly large cracks. By comparison, the stage seemed to be the eye of the storm.

And at the centre of it all stood Vanya.

She was glowing again, blindingly, her arms raised as if she were conducting the concert now. But whereas before the effect had been making Klaus feel strangely comforted, this couldn't by any stretch be described as comforting. Threatening was more fitting. His little sister was positively frightening. As if in an effort to further underline that impression, one of their attackers who was still standing started shooting in Vanya's direction, only for the bullets to suddenly stop in mid-air. Vanya made a gesture in his direction and then, with a scream, the man joined his colleagues above her.

"Holy shit!" Ben voiced Klaus' thoughts exactly.

It was safe to say, this sight was mildly terrifying. The only reassuring thing about it was that none of the bodies hanging up there were their siblings. Once he was able to tear his eyes away from little scary Number 7, Klaus spied Allison over by the knocked-over violinists' chairs. She must have gotten blown back there in a similar manner to Diego and him. She didn't look injured, but the look on her face reflected Klaus' pretty well.

Luther, meanwhile, had apparently somehow managed to stay on his feet and was still standing where he'd been before everything started, next to Vanya. He looked petrified, staring open-mouthed at the carnage around him.

Not all of their attackers had been caught up in the air circus, either. Klaus saw shadows moving around the theatre, occasionally lighting up with gunfire, but maybe their bullets couldn't get past Vanya's power either. They weren't hitting anyone Klaus cared about, that at least he could see. Short flashes of light appeared in the auditorium seemingly at random and a heartbeat later one of the guns would stop firing: Five, doing his thing.

Klaus hovered uncertainly in the doorway. Even with Ben on his side, he wasn't sure what he could do in this situation. He had a feeling that maybe they ought to stop Vanya before the building collapsed, but that glowing spirit his sister had transformed into didn't look like it was in any mood to be stopped. There was anger radiating from her like heat from a furnace.

Then, before Klaus could come to a decision, several things happened at once. Allison rushed forward, her mouth moving but no sounds coming out. At the same time, Luther reached for Vanya. It happened as if in slow motion. His monkey arms completely enveloped her, and that was the last thing Klaus saw before the storm abruptly hit the stage with all its force.

He lost his footing and very nearly would have fallen back down the steps, had Diego not grabbed him. Klaus held on to him for dear life. So his brother was back on his feet. That was good, but meanwhile everything from the chairs to the fucking piano had gone flying.

There really wasn't a reason for that anymore, the thought flashed through Klaus' head. There weren't any attackers left in the room, but the forces just kept raging on. Vanya didn't seem to have this under control. As was evidenced by Five suddenly materializing next to her and Luther, only to be immediately blown back again. There was a sharp crack as the glass ceiling above them burst and rained down splinters into the theatre.

And then, without warning, it stopped. Klaus felt his ears pop and the storm abruptly cease. There were a dozen loud thuds as the floating bodies hit the ground, and then silence.

When people talked about a 'resounding silence', this had to be what they were referring to.

"Is everyone alright?" Luther's voice tore through it, sounding insanely loud.

"Confirm!" Diego yelled back, letting go of Klaus' hand, making him unceremoniously drop to the floor.

"Still alive!" he joined in. He felt comfortable making that statement, if nothing else. No one seemed to be unreasonably hurt, which, considering the circumstances, was pretty amazing. The entire group got to their feet and made their way over to Number 1.

Luther opened his arms and Vanya staggered out – still very much conscious, to Klaus eminent surprise. He quickly caught her before she could fall over. A second later, Allison was there, too. Vanya's eyes were clouded over and still glowing faintly, but to his relief they seemed to recognize them. "Are you okay?" she whispered hoarsely.

Klaus couldn't help but laugh. The same words had been on his lips, and Ben's, too, presumably. "This should be our new catchphrase." he joked weakly.

"Not funny. Could have…killed you…"

Allison gave her a look that was full of worry and a little bit of fear, but she nevertheless reached out to take her sister's hand, trying to be comforting. Then she looked up at Luther, who was standing by a little forlornly.

Klaus took it upon himself to be Allison's voice in her stead. "Thanks for not choking her again, big guy." he said. Okay; maybe that wasn't how his sister would have phrased it, but it had to be more or less the gist. And Klaus was very grateful for whatever Luther had done, too. He had a feeling that trying to put Vanya to sleep again wouldn't have ended well this time.

Luther cleared his throat. "Ahem. Yeah. I thought, maybe if I... It's just good everyone's unhurt."

In a flash, Five appeared next to them. He looked ruffled, but was otherwise his usual boyish and indignant self. "Goddammit, what was that?! I told you guys to run!" he admonished.

"Well, you could have given a bit more information than that." Luther complained, making a gesture that seemed to encompass all the chaos around them. "First you disappear without explanation and then that. How could we know a bunch of psychopaths would just start shooting?"

"Oh, for…!" Five stopped, took a _very_ deep breath, exhaled and then said, more calmly: "Those were the people I warned you about; the Commission. Trying to make the apocalypse happen, remember? I don't know what they tried to accomplish here…" his eyes flashed to the dazed Vanya for a brief second, "but it looks like they didn't succeed."

"I don't know; that looked pretty apocalyptic to me." Diego said. He was looking at Vanya warily. "She almost killed us along with those guys."

Vanya looked around for the first time, seeing all the bodies she had left. "Oh." she whispered. She looked like she might be sick.

"Hey, it wasn't your fault." Klaus protested. "Literally, they were shooting at you. I would overreact, too."

"Yeah, but you can't tear out chairs and throw them around like confetti when you 'overreact', brother." Diego said.

"Actually…"

"Will you quit it?" Luther butted in. "We can discuss all this later. If your 'Commission' wants to make the apocalypse happen, they still have a few hours to do it. We need a plan to stop that, and fast."

"It won't happen." Vanya made herself heard. Her voice had gotten a bit of its strength back. In fact, her statement almost sounded almost like a promise, and _that_ made Klaus' spider senses tingle. Why did she sound like that?

But Five agreed: "Yes. She's right. I think we've prevented the end of the world already."

"Seriously?" Diego inquired. "You're sure this time? No apocalypse? Cause last time that didn't work out so well."

"Pretty sure." said Five.

"Well, hurrah." said Klaus.

"Fuck this job!" cursed another voice.

The entire Hargreeves family turned towards the source: a dishevelled, cursing black woman at the foot of the stage. She gave them all a single resentful glare. Then she huffed and walked off, limping slightly.

The siblings exchanged glances. Diego, looking stunned, pointed after her. "Was that…?"

"Don't worry about it." Five hurried to reassure him. Again, there was that quick glance to Vanya. "We shouldn't stay here; it's too exposed. The Commission might still want revenge for this."

"I'm tired." Vanya said.

She did look exhausted; even as she was saying the words she was staggering slightly. Klaus instinctively tightened his arm around her frame. "After a show like that that makes sense." he assured her. "I don't know about anyone else, but I'm ready for a time-out, too."

Allison pointedly raised her note pad, which she must have retrieved at some point. The word _Same!_ was underlined three times.

"Right. Back to the academy." Luther ordered. He reached out for Allison, who linked their hands together. When exactly had that become official? "We'll set up watches. With the entire group under one roof, this Commission should just try attacking again. No one is getting any of us today."

As far as motivational speeches went, that was one of his better (and mercifully shorter) ones. Klaus could only agree with him.

* * *

It had been years since she had last been up here.

Vanya almost laughed at the thought: it had been years since she had been anywhere in this house. But this small, never-used room on the upper floor with its window overlooking the academy had used to be her little safe space whenever she needed some quiet. She'd liked just sitting on the windowsill and looking across the rooftops, reminding herself that there was another world out there where most people weren't superheroes and just ordinary.

She'd stopped coming here after Ben died. After that, thoughts of the bigger world out there just made her sad.

It was deep in the night now and the city beyond the chimneys existed only as little dots of light in the darkness. Vanya started counting them, just to have something to occupy herself with. A bone-deep tiredness had settled in her body, but she hadn't found herself able to sleep. She didn't know why she had come here again. Luther had explicitly said that none of them should leave the Academy for the time being, so maybe her dangling her legs out the window was her way of rebelling, at least a little.

Except that she was an adult. She had killed people and was struggling with a power she could barely comprehend, never mind control. If she wanted to she could just up and walk out the door. No; this was not about a childish little rebellion.

A flickering blue light flashed across the night sky, just before the wailing sound of a siren reached Vanya's ears. She allowed the sound to echo through her for a moment before she sent its energy back out at the ancient weather vane on its pole, making it spin and creak around its own axis. She felt a small rush of satisfaction, making her powers rise and abate like that. After a few moments, the siren became quieter as it moved further away, and then silence fell over the rooftop once again.

Somewhere out there, police were no doubt combing through the ruined Icarus Theatre, searching for an explanation for the mess she had left behind. It wouldn't take long before someone would make the connection to her – the conductor would, if no one else. There was no way she could ever go back now. With the orchestra, the last small piece of normalcy that her life had had had vanished now, too.

It was frightening, but paradoxically Vanya also felt like she could breathe easier now. At least the constant sense of _wrongness_ that had hung over her life for as long as she could remember had vanished. Even though this new reality scared her, she at least was herself again. She had all but forgotten how that felt like.

"I never took you for a star gazer."

The familiar voice edged into her thoughts as quietly as his footsteps on the wooden floor, and Vanya didn't have to turn around. After a moment, she felt Five's presence at her back – this odd mix of gravitas and childish haste that was so familiar and yet so different from the boy she had known before he jumped. She was a little surprised that he'd come up here.

When it became clear that Vanya wasn't going to reply, Five sighed and nudged her. "You got room there?"

Vanya scooted over a bit and Five swung his legs out beside her.

"It's weird, seeing this place still standing." he said. "Even though I spent so much time worrying about how to stop the apocalypse, I never considered what that would actually look like."

"So you're saying we did stop it, definitely." Vanya stated.

Five made an uncommitted noise, his gaze flicking across the rooftop to the lights in the dark. "Right now they should be delivering next day's newspapers. Unless the world ends in the next thirty minutes, Yes; we did it."

"Have you ever heard the term 'tempting fate'?"

"Yes. I think it's stupid." He made a long pause, just long enough to feel unnatural for him. Pensiveness was not in his nature. Five was about as far from pensive as anyone could be. Yet now he seemed almost lost in his thoughts. "All those people out there don't even know what they avoided. They'll carry on leading their meaningless, normal lives like nothing has happened. If you want to talk about tempting fate, that is the context to do it."

Vanya sighed. "I forgot how cynical you were."

"It's not cynical when I'm right. _You_ were normal before this week; tell me I'm wrong about them."

Cynical, and no tact whatsoever. Five had barely changed at all. To her own surprise, Vanya found how much she had missed him. She missed having someone to talk to who listened to her, even if he'd immediately refute what she said afterwards. As children, he had been the only one of her siblings to really listen, while she in return had more or less been the sounding board for his crazy theories. In her memory, she thought they had both enjoyed that time.

After his disappearance, it felt like her only companion in the world had been taken from her, and she had closed herself off from the others all the more.

This joy of having her brother back was only slowly seeping through Vanya's body. She had been happy when he'd fallen through the time portal, certainly, but even then she hadn't been able or willing to show too much of it. She hadn't been good at understanding her own emotions in general, much less expressing them.

Vanya scoffed at herself. With some distance, she was finally able to see how robotic her life had been until Leonard took away her suppressants. After a week without them, she found that all her emotions were bubbling up more and more. Everything felt exacerbated; from her joy, to the ever-present anxiety, to the pure rage she had felt when the masked men had started shooting at her family. It was frankly overwhelming.

But even so she never wanted to go back. Even with what she had almost done. She felt alive like she hadn't been in – well, forever. More present, more _there_. Everything was sharper. She noticed more, felt more.

"You okay?" asked Five after a long silence. "You must be exhausted after – everything that happened back there."

It was a show of concern so rare from Five that Vanya wanted to embrace and just accept it. It had been so long. At the same time, her stomach coiled with anger. She turned her head to look at him. "You can quit it, you know." she said. It was a surprise to herself how calm she sounded.

"What?" Five replied, his expression neutral.

"I'm not going to spontaneously explode and cause the end of the world. That's why you're here, isn't it?" It wasn't really a question. She could see it in his eyes: Five knew about her being the trigger – or the bomb, rather. It wasn't a difficult leap to make. If she had figured it out for herself, Five must have, too. He had always been the smarter of them. And him pretending not to know now made her sick. "I'm not stupid, Five. I was supposed to cause it and I didn't, so now I'll always be a risk. You don't have to talk around it."

"Damn. I really thought I was better at this." Five said. His eyes met hers, and they carried this incredibly old look that almost hurt to look at. Too young eyes that had seen too much. "You understand, then, don't you? Why I have to be worried?"

"Yes. I understand." Vanya looked away, fighting down the new powerful surge of disappointment. Free, uninhibited emotions were a bitch. "I just thought a little trust would have been nice."

"Hey, don't do that. You're not the one I don't trust." Five protested, and the indignant sincerity in that statement made Vanya look at him again. Entirely without her consent, it flipped the switch inside her back to cautious, guarded hope that he was being honest. "You're still the most reasonable of this crazy bunch. I know you can keep this in check, Vanya. But the Commission – I'm really not sure what they'll do now that you've refused to cooperate."

"I think it's pretty clear what your Commission is going with." Vanya huffed.

"Those were henchmen; that wasn't the end of it. And not a single one of the soldiers at the theatre was shooting at you."

Vanya nodded. So she hadn't imagined that. The bullets she had deflected had been meant for her family, not for her. A foul taste filled her mouth: She was too precious to hurt; those people still needed her. Her siblings, not so much. Just imagining it, Vanya felt anger rise up in her chest. After only just getting them back, she didn't think she would have would have been able to take losing them again so soon.

Perhaps that had been the Commission's plan. Perhaps it had hoped killing them would trigger an outburst that she could no longer control. Vanya slumped together, hugging her knees in an effort hold on to something steady. If that had really been their plan, it was a vicious and too damn effective one, and it had almost succeeded.

"I think I got close, Five." she admitted quietly. "I lost control. All the people I killed – and I don't know what else I would have done."

"But you didn't." Five sated. He hesitated for a moment and then awkwardly patted her on the back. It was a strange gesture coming from him, and he quickly stopped. He cleared his throat: "Look, this is what I'm thinking: Yes, you are a risk. But you know that, and the way I see it you have a better chance of controlling it than whatever we'd try. Certainly a better chance than the shit dear old dad tried."

Vanya breathed out deeply. Despite her reservations, it felt good to hear him say things like this. Her breathing came easier. "Have you told the others that?"

"Just that the apocalypse isn't happening; not why. I figured that's not a conversation for this time of night." Five inclined his head. "Though Klaus asked me, quote, 'What the odds were that Vanya blows up something important'. Have you said anything to him?"

"Yes. Him and Allison." Vanya shivered, partly at the cold night air and partly at the memory of the bunker deep below them. "I don't think they understood what I was saying, though."

"No; naturally."

A trace of the boyish snarkiness she remembered jumped back into Five's voice there. It used to make Vanya roll her eyes at him whenever he'd use that tone on her, but now, absurdly, hearing it again made her smile. A memory surfaced; how one time when he got too patronizing, she had hit him over the head with her notebook. That was one of the few occasions where she had managed to stun him into silence.

Five looked at her and laughed quietly. Maybe he'd thought of the same thing. "We'd best explain it to them tomorrow, if you're ready."

"We?" Vanya's small emotional high died down and she couldn't help the scepticism sneaking into her voice. "So you'll stick around this time?"

Five sighed, rolling his eyes. "Is this about your apartment? I told you I had something important to do. And I didn't think you could handle the magnitude of the situation at the time."

"No. _Naturally_." Vanya bit back scathingly. "It's not like you told me the world was ending or anything."

"I shouldn't have told you that in the first place, I see that now…"

"You thought I was too weak, just say it. Too ordinary, too fragile; whatever." She saw her brother about to protest and cut him off: "But that's not even the point. You _told me_ you would stay." Her eyes started to well with angry tears that she didn't care to hold back. "After 17 years, Five! That was a promise and I trusted you. And then you just leave without a word. I don't care if it's to save the world or to get a cup of coffee; before you even think of pulling that shit again you. Will. Tell. Me. First!"

She accompanied every word with a stab to Five's chest. Perhaps she put a little more force – physical and more-than-physical – into it than necessary. Somewhere in the back of her head, Vanya noted that she had gone from cautiously calm to actually-kind-of-happy to yelling-at-her-brother-angry all within a manner of minutes. Apparently, violent mood swings were a side effect of cold turkey from emotion-suppressing pills. Figured. But it didn't make any of what she said less justified.

Five glanced down at her finger, blinking a few times, looking very caught off guard. Finally he shook his head and chuckled. He muttered something under his breath that sounded like "_Fragile, my ass."_ Aloud he said, "I don't remember you ever giving me orders."

"There's a first time for everything." Vanya shot back, not lowering her gaze.

"Apparently." Five looked her up and down, and she thought the look was almost appreciative. "Assertive kind of suits you, Vanya. Scary powers, too. I suppose I can be glad you didn't go for my throat the very next day after I left."

"Yeah, well – you can be glad I was on my pills then."

Five didn't reply to that. Just nodded as a little '_Okay, glad we cleared that up_'.

Vanya didn't have anything else to say, so they ended up in silence again.

Silence always had been their go-to mode of interaction. Normally, Vanya remembered, Five would at this point continue making notes for a project he was working on, with her as his silent observer and occasional talk-back channel. Now, he was staring out into nothingness, presumably as lost in his thoughts as she was. And she, too, was a far cry from the shy, normal little girl that had once sat by his side. Things had changed.

At last her brother yawned heavily. He gave her a little nudge; another new habit he seemed to have picked up. She didn't mind it at all. "I don't know about you, but this week has drained me. Luther and Diego have set themselves up for night duty in case anyone tries to come for us here. Let's settle down in our depressing childhood rooms and get some shut-eye before the next fight?" he suggested.

"Go ahead. I think I'll just sit out here for another minute." Vanya gave her brother an ironic little smile. "A lot on the mind, you know?"

Five shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just don't overdo it with the thinking. Trust me, it rarely works out." In a flash, he was gone.

Vanya's gaze wandered across the roof of the Academy, towards the distant sky scrapers; her mind drifting outwards. The last days had been a single rush and she never really had time to gather her thoughts. There was a lot to unpack. And she had never been the best at self-reflection. Or moving on.

She had powers. She had killed people. The orchestra was a thing of the past now, as was her cosy, normal little flat. People hunted for her. And, somehow, she was staying under the same roof as her siblings again. Half of which trusted and loved her, the other half didn't or did so barely, and one just openly said that she was a risk, and oh, welcome back, sis. That was her family that she knew next to nothing about and, for the longest time, hadn't wanted to know, either. Vanya was still unsure how she felt about them, how she felt about any of this. Her entire quiet life had been uprooted.

But then it hadn't been much of a life, had it? Anything, even something this crazy and uncertain, had to be an improvement. Vanya nodded to herself: Whatever came next, that was a point of view she could work with, a way of going forward that she could _make_ work somehow.

Or, at the very least, she would try. Provided that they tried, too.


End file.
